I am yet to forget the taste of tandoored fish at ‘Makhan Fish’ in Amritsar. Years back, that was my first introduction to Punjabi style fish shops. Then we discovered Pappu fish in Gurgaon & found it very good till two days back my friend mentioned Paramjeet. We did not waste time & the next day we were at Motinagar driving all the way from Gurgaon. Unlike Pappu fish who sells fish in the winters onlty, Paramjeet’s fish is available round the year.

……………… & let me tell u – it was worth it.

The shop has a chicken shop, a chai shop, a liquor shop & a paan – soft drink shop as its neighbours – As perfect a symbiosis as it can be.

The row of shops

We stuck to the fish menu only as the portions were large + good chicken is available in many places but good fish is hard to find.
The minimum order size for fish at Paramjeet is 250 grams. That meant two dishes between the two of us = half a kilo of fish!!!!

Testing the extent of the grill

We ordered a fried fish first. This was big chunks of fish marinated, deep fried, garnished with a chatpata masala & served with mint chutney, a wedge of lemon & onion rings. The fish was layery, soft & mildly juicy. The marination was not over powering & we cud enjoy the freshness of the fish. The masalas were very effective but subtle. The outer layer formed due to frying was mild crisp very thin , thus giving a nice texture while not interfering with the taste. The garnishing was minimal as well.

fried fish

The mint chutney was not dahi based like it is in most of the places, It was strong in taste & flavours & really good. Took me a bit of time to start enjoying it.

Loved the fish as it is & also with the mint chutney.

With only thing that cud have made this a ‘to die for’ is that the fish cud have been juicier. Leaving that apart, this fish was almost perfect. I wud say 4/5.

Next we ordered Tandoori fish. I loved this more than the fried fish. The flavours of the fish & the masalas was more pronounced here. This also had the same accompaniments as above.

Tandoori fish at Paramjeet

The fish was layery, soft & quite juicy. As above, the only thing that cud have been better is ‘more juicy’. Else it was perfect. I wud give this 4.25/5.

Close up of Tandoori fish

Loved the experience of eating from the plate kept on the car boot, chatting up with the owners (as a customer, without divulging my identity) & clicking food photos on the main road with people giving strange looks. Will surely get back there.

I have been a regular of this place since the last 15 years and the only one who used to come close to this one was this fish shop in Kirti Nagar… The fish here is unparalleled, you caught him on a bad day…